The Great Bed and Paper Incident
by MistyEyes
Summary: Tyson has a paper to write and decides that he absolutely cannot finish it without Kai's moral support. [Tyka]


**Notes:** This was a birthday ficlet for the lovely Glay! And no, I'm not two months late, I just decided to post this after Ranma prodded me to. :)

Dedicated to Glay

By Misty

**The Great Bed/Paper Incident **

"Tyson, your paper isn't going to write itself," Kai remarked, flipping a page in his Philosophy textbook. He was seated on the couch, idly passing time by alternating between reading here and there and yelling at his roommate to finish his paper on the Vietnam War. Or, better yet, get him to get past the first paragraph. Kai found it annoying to try and sleep with the eerie light of the computer screen on and their stupid dorms had a combined room for living and sleeping. He heard him rummaging about in the kitchen before coming out with a large bag of Cheetos.

"These spirally shaped Cheetos are lame," Tyson complained, examining one in his hand while crunching on another. "They don't taste as good as the regular ones."

Kai rolled his eyes, not looking up from his book. "I assure you, they taste the same."

"They totally do not. Taste!" Tyson zipped to the couch and held out a cheesy puff in front of Kai's lips. Kai pushed it away and watched in disdain as orange-colored flecks appeared atop the white pages.

"You're making a mess," Kai said, brushing them away. "Go finish your paper. I don't want to taste that garbage."

"Cheetos aren't garbage," Tyson said defensively. "They're good."

"They're _bright orange_. It doesn't get any more artificial than that." Kai lifted his eyes and looked Tyson squarely in the face. "It's late. Finish your paper."

With a dejected sigh, Tyson trudged back to the computer and plopped himself in the desk chair. He stared hatefully at the screen for a moment, then lifted his fingers to the keyboard. He hadn't typed a single word before he glanced at Kai again.

"Will you help me?" he queried pathetically, making his coppery eyes large and hopeful. Kai glared hard at him before shutting his text and stalking over to him, pulling up a rolling chair. He had never been able to say no to Tyson when he looked like _that_.

"You have to write your own paper," he said firmly.

"I am. I need moral support, though. I'll get bored if you don't talk to me and stuff."

"If I talk to you, you'll get distracted and never finish."

"Not true! I work better if someone talks. Silence makes me crazy."

Kai sighed and leaned back in his chair. It was almost midnight. Leave it to Tyson to put off a major paper until the night before—or should he say the morning before?

"Just start writing," he said, rubbing his eyes. He heard the clack of Tyson's typing and felt a little better knowing that they were at least on the right track. "How long does it have to be?"

"Long."

"_How_ long?"

"Three to five pages."

"That's not long if you know what you're talking about. Especially with a History paper like yours—it's all research." He paused. "You started researching yesterday, didn't you?"

"This morning, actually."

He sighed again and closed his eyes for a moment, relaxing in his chair. Tyson's clacking continued, and Kai was almost lulled into a sleep-like state by the monotonous sound until it suddenly stopped. He cracked an eye open regretfully.

"It's too quiet. You have to talk to me," Tyson said accusingly, as if his inability to concentrate was all Kai's fault.

"How was your day?" Kai said indistinctly, then growled when Tyson poked him.

"That's a boring question that people ask when they don't really care about the answer. I want real conversation!"

"Tyson, I'm tired," Kai justified, trying to curl up in his chair but finding it uncomfortable to do so. "It's midnight. I have a morning class tomorrow."

Tyson looked thoughtful for a moment, chewing his bottom lip. Suddenly his eyes lit up.

"I got it! I can still write my paper with you next to me and you can sleep… sort of. I'll just move what I have onto my laptop and I'll sit on your bed and you can talk to me and sleep at the same time," he said radiantly. Kai thought about his logic for a minute.

"How am I going to talk and sleep at the same time?" he asked finally.

"Ah… I don't know. But you're smart, you'll think of something." Tyson gave him a confident grin and then rummaged through the drawer beside him for a disk. Kai acquiesced and got up, pushing his chair away before padding to his bed and pulling the covers back. Tyson appeared beside him, holding his laptop.

"I want to be under the covers, too," he whined immediately upon seeing Kai slip into bed comfortably. He scurried to the other side and sat down, pulling the covers over his legs. He set the notebook down and looked at Kai. "No, no, no! You'll fall asleep way too fast like that and then I'll never finish my paper."

Kai groaned as Tyson snatched the pillow out from under his head and propped it against the headboard. He fluffed it gently and then smiled.

"There. You can sit up comfortably."

"Thanks," he mumbled wretchedly, trying to get as much relief as he could by leaning back against the pillow. He shut his eyes, but found it hard to even doze in his position. Tyson resumed typing while Kai squirmed, trying to get comfortable.

"Stop moving," Tyson said, stopping his work. "I can't concentrate if you're gonna wiggle around like that. Hey, let's play a game! Whoever wiggles the mo—"

"No," Kai cut him off, amazed at how easily he was distracted. "Your paper. Remember that?"

Tyson stuck out his lip and glared at the glowing screen. "This is _haaaaard_. I don't want to do it."

"You have to. This paper's a big part of your grade."

"Can't I just fail? This class is stupid."

"You'll never get your degree and you'll never get a job if you don't do your papers," Kai said. "You'll be living in a cardboard box on the side of the road."

Tyson pondered this. "But you'd let me live with you, right? You wouldn't let me be homeless!"

"Actually, I would. You'd need to learn one way or another that there are no free rides in life."

"Kaaaai!" Tyson cried, aghast. "You would honestly let me waste away in some alley just to teach me an unimportant lesson like that?"

"You're getting off topic again. Write your paper." Kai took a deep breath and closed his eyes again, resuming the difficult task of trying to sleep while Tyson was still awake. He heard more tapping on the keyboard (and Tyson grumbling) and thought he might actually fall asleep this time, for Tyson continued his typing for an extended period. Kai finally slipped peacefully into oblivion…

And he dreamt a very stupid dream where Tyson was frolicking in a meadow with a bonnet on his head and throwing flowers up in the air. Tyson then decided to throw flowers at Kai's face, so Kai spent what seemed like an eternity wrinkling his nose at having the wretched little petals tickle his face.

And _then_ when he groggily opened his eyes, he saw none other than Tyson himself with a sheet of printer paper in his hands, softly tickling his face with a corner. Kai blinked a few times, trying to figure out if he was still dreaming.

"Hi," Tyson said. Kai paused.

"Hi," he said warily.

"You fell asleep."

"I know. Thanks for letting me. Are you done with your paper?"

Tyson held up a freshly stapled packet. "Finally! Five pages of utter bull."

A silence passed between them before Kai spoke again. "Why are you touching my face?"

"I was bored. And you kept wrinkling your nose up—it was too cute to resist."

Kai blushed slightly in spite of himself, but then nearly had a heart attack when Tyson leaned down and kissed him swiftly on the lips. Kai lay there, stunned, as Tyson got out of bed and dumped the laptop on the desk, threw his paper somewhere, and then crawled back under the sheets beside Kai's warm body. He snuggled up to his side and sighed contentedly.

"Why did you just kiss me?" Kai asked, still staring at the ceiling.

"You gave me my moral support and I had to give you something back," Tyson said, as if it were the most logical thing in the world. "Who says I can't enjoy paying my dues? Now shut up and let me sleep, we'll discuss this tomorrow."

Kai felt a smile creeping onto his lips as they lay there in the dark. A few moments later he slipped an arm around Tyson's body, getting comfortable as he closed his eyes, and for the first time all evening, he was glad that Tyson was such a horrible procrastinator.

**THE END **


End file.
